Dr SOUTHCOTT (Boothby) (18:18): Minister, I would like to ask about the electronic health record. It is now just 12 days until the promised start date for the electronic health record. Can the minister confirm that the national IT infrastructure being built by the Accenture Oracle consortium is not yet live? Can the minister advise the parliament and health professionals when it will be live? Is the minister still committed to launching the National Authentication Service for Health or NASH on 26 June? If not, when will the NASH be ready?

Can the minister explain the basis of the interim system provided by Medicare used to cover for the missing NASH? Was there any additional cost involved in providing this interim service and how long does the minister expect this interim service to be in place? A spokesperson for the minister's office has been quoted today as saying, 'The delay in the delivery of the NASH will have no impact on a patient's ability to sign up for a personally controlled e-health record.' Can the minister advise the parliament as to whether this delay in the delivery of the NASH will have an impact on the ability for a practitioner to upload data to a patient's electronic health record?

Can the minister confirm that people will not be able to register online for an electronic health record on 1 July? Has the upgrade to the Medicare operated healthcare identifiers services been completed to interface with the PCEHR? When will this be complete? Is this project behind schedule and if so why? When will GPs be able to upload material and patient information to a personally controlled electronic health record? When will GPs be able to download material from an electronic health record? If you cannot provide the date can you provide the month? If you cannot provide the month can you provide the year?